So when last we left our heroes, they were defining the key components to begin a strategy for living. Ok quick review!

Narrow down and define my purpose – Check
Use the purpose to craft my life’s mission – Check
Set the vision of life that I want for myself – Check
Identify my core values – Check!

All righty then, let’s move on to how we put it all together to get the life we desire. I don’t mean to be too formal, but “desire” is a more positive word than “want”. Words have power and desire is about what we deserve while “want” speaks to lack and neediness. We are learning to live in a space of desire and go about the business of getting what we deserve. This is my belief. We are all made of the same properties as the planets, sun and the earth; we are in pretty good company and should align our thoughts as though we ARE the best stuff in the universe. Having stated that, doesn’t the best deserve the best! Okay then, how do we go about claiming what is rightfully ours! Not by force of will but by conscious manifestation. What better way to consciously manifest than by planning our dreams into goals. Of course, you knew this was coming right? We won’t call it goal planning (as that sounds like work). We will call it dream building…

First step in building a dream is to decide what kind of dream is it. In my coaching work, I assist in planning lives along eight domains; spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, occupational, financial, experiential, and tangible.

I chose these eight dimensions because all other categories of life fit neatly under them. Our Spiritual life is guided by our values. Some of us believe in a multidimensional power greater than ourselves that has created the universe and everything in it. Some people believe in the power of nature and the physical laws that govern it. Others believe in the power of self and man. Whatever you believe in that influences your existence and regulates the balance of life and death for you, is your higher power or spirituality. Then there is our mental life. This encompasses our intellect, education, thought processes and the seat of our beliefs. Our mentality is largely made up of how we perceive the world and this also speaks to our unique personalities.

Next we have our physical life. What we eat, how we move or exercise, our weight, skin, hair, teeth, limbs, five senses and our overall physical health fall under this domain. The one domain that gets too little attention is our emotional self. Our emotions are extremely important. Our emotional life can either make or break us, literally. If our emotions go unregulated we become very destructive to self and others. At the opposite end of the spectrum, when we master our emotions and self-regulate, we are awesome creators. Emotions are the keys to how quickly we manifest our ‘wants’ (negative things or situations) and our ‘desires’ the things that, at our best, we richly deserve.

The occupational domain is the actual career or work we complete in order to have the resources necessary for daily living. We can love or dislike our occupation. Whichever emotion you have concerning your work will let you know how much dream building you need to complete in this domain. Next we have our financial life. In most of our households growing up, we talked very little about finances and money. Many times if we discussed money growing up, it was not always the best programming for an impressionable mind. Most of us, young or old, rich or poor need to be re-programmed about money and its importance in our personal lives, marriages, families and in financing our futures. The domain named experiential is the catch all for our social experiences. These experiences include our relationships with our family, friends, school chums, associates and our romantic partner. This domain also speaks to other experiences like traumas or hurts as well as other life changing events such as marriage or child birth. This is where our Mark on Life List comes in handy. Many of the things we wrote down that we want to experience should be a part of our dream building in this domain. Lastly we have the domain that captures tangibles. We all live in a world where our five senses must be engaged. Many of us envision a future of success as having some of the best tangibles the world can offer. We dream of a beautifully appointed home on the coast, a luxury vehicle in the drive, designer clothes and jewelry, frequent fine dining, owning a yacht or private plane! The list of tangibles that we can acquire that indicate some level of success is endless.

So now that we have a foundation, we will get down to building our dreams. So your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to look carefully at the list of defined domains and choose the areas you will focus on for the next year. Yes you can pick them all! You can do anything you put your mind to! So tune into the next issue when we get into the mechanics of a life plan that allows us to measure how we build our dreams. Until then, I am wishing for you the very best of life!